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Abstract:

Personalization of access to health-related information on a computer
network is provided based upon a health history of a user. In one
implementation, personal health-related information about the user is
obtaining from the user operating a client computer. The health-related
information includes one or more health-related terms that each
corresponds to a health-related concept. The health related terms
provided by the user are correlated with a health terminology thesaurus
that is stored on a computer-readable medium, such as at a server remote
from the user client. Each of the health-related terms is associated with
a single concept unique identifier that uniquely identifies a
corresponding health-related concept. Health-related works or content is
made accessible over the computer network by correlating the concept
unique identifiers for the user's health information with corresponding
concept unique identifiers that are associated with the health-related
content.

Claims:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving from a user health
information about the user, said health information comprising
health-related indicators of health conditions of the user; for the
health-related indicators within the health information received about
the user, identifying corresponding concept unique identifiers (CUIs)
from an index that identifies relationships between CUIs and
health-related indicators; storing in an electronic database information
about a plurality of health-related works, wherein the plurality of
health-related works includes works selected from the group consisting of
health-related news and health-related articles; indexing the plurality
of health-related works by at least one of a content index and a target
population index, wherein the content index contains for each
health-related work CUIs identifying the content of that health-related
work and the target population index contains for each health-related
work target information identifying populations of users for which that
health-related work is appropriate; based at least in part upon said CUIs
for the health-related indicators from the user, and at least one of the
CUIs within the content index for the plurality of health-related works
and the target information within the target index for the plurality of
health-related works, identifying health-related works among the
plurality of health-related works that are relevant to the user; and
providing to the user access to the identified health-related works.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: correlating each
health-related work of the plurality of health-related works with a
plurality of concept unique identifiers so that said each health-related
work of the plurality of health-related works is characterized by a
subset of CUIs selected from said plurality of concept unique
identifiers.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: providing a user interface
to receive said health information about the user, wherein said user
interface is configured to communicate with a computer server configured
to verify said user's identity.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said computer server is configured to
process the health information from said user to identify any
health-related indicators, and further, to identify all possible CUIs
corresponding to said health-related indicators.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying health-related works
further comprises: accessing one or more databases to obtain the
plurality of health-related works, said one or more databases containing
a variety of health-related literature.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein identifying health-related works
further comprises: for each health-related work of the plurality of
health-related works, determining whether the CUIs associated with that
health-related work contains at least one of the corresponding CUIs; and
responsive to determining that CUIs associated with one of the
health-related works contains at least one of the corresponding CUIs,
providing that health-related work to said user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein target information identifying
populations of users for which that health-related work is appropriate
does so by identifying populations of users for which that health-related
work is not appropriate.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein providing access involves providing
hyperlinks to the identified health-related works to the user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein providing access involves sending the
content of the identified health-related works to the user.

10. A computer system comprising: a user interface configured for
receiving from a user health information about the user, said health
information comprising health-related indicators pertaining to personal
health conditions; and a processor in electronic communication with said
user interface, said processor configured to execute computer
instructions to perform the following functions: for the health-related
indicators within the health information received about the user,
identifying corresponding concept unique identifiers (CUIs) from an index
that identifies relationships between CUIs and health-related indicators,
said index stored in a database accessible to said processor; and
accessing one or more online databases containing a plurality of
health-related works, wherein the plurality of health-related works
includes works selected from the group consisting of health-related news
and health-related articles, wherein the plurality of health-related
works are indexed by at least one of a content index and a target
population index, wherein the content index contains for each
health-related work CUIs identifying the content of that health-related
work and the target population index contains for each health-related
work target information identifying populations of users for which that
health-related work is appropriate; based at least in part upon said CUIs
for the health-related indicators from the user, and at least one of the
CUIs within the content index for the plurality of health-related works
and the target information within the target index for the plurality of
health-related works, identifying health-related works among the
plurality of health-related works that are relevant to the user; and
providing to the user access to the identified health-related works.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein said processor is further configured
to execute computer instructions to perform the following functions:
responsive to the identifying health-related works that are relevant to
the user, sending said identified health-related works to said user.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein sending said identified
health-related works are provided to said user by sending an email.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein sending an email involves sending
either the content of said identified health-related works or a URL link
for accessing the content of said identified health-related works.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein said processor is configured to
access said one or more online databases containing a variety of
health-related literature via a communication network.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein target information identifying
populations of users for which that health-related work is appropriate
does so by identifying populations of users for which that health-related
work is not appropriate.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein providing access involves providing
hyperlinks to the identified health-related works to the user.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein providing access involves sending the
content of the identified health-related works to the user.

Description:

PRIORITY

[0001] This application claims priority of U.S. patent application Ser.
No. 10/654,503 filed on Sep. 3, 2003, issuing as U.S. Pat. No. 8,612,245
on Dec. 17, 2013, which claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser.
No. 09/512,231, filed on Feb. 24, 2000, all of which are incorporated
herein in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The present invention relates to providing personalized access to
content that is available over a computer network and, in particular. to
providing health-related content that is accurately personalized
according to personal health information about the user, including health
information that is described in lay medical terminology.

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0003] Consumer health information is growing in importance and
popularity, with computer networks such as the Internet providing a
growing share of the information. It is estimated that health issues are
addressed at tens of thousands of online sites with potentially millions
of pages of health-related works or content. With a general lack of
clinical and editorial standards for health-related content, lay
consumers without specific medical training, and even trained medical
professionals, can have relatively little success in finding desired or
relevant information among such vast resources.

[0004] Moreover, given the extremely personal nature of health, most
individuals have minimal interest in browsing materials that have no
relevance to their health or the health of their families. Yet most of
the health information available at conventional network (e.g., Internet)
sites or portals addresses only general topics. Such information seldom
has any particular relevance to individual users. Accordingly, there is a
need for an improved way of obtaining relevant or personalized
health-related content from computer networks such as the Internet.

[0005] Conventional network (e.g., Internet) systems employ a variety of
personalization processes that at least minimally personalize a network
site for different visitors or users. The personalization provided by
many such processes is relatively simplistic and provides personalization
only to the extent of a small number of personalization options. These
conventional personalization processes include Greetings, which can be as
simple as providing a "welcome sign" that informs the user of the state
of a single condition, such as, "Hello you've got mail;" Pick Lists,
which allow users to select from predetermined lists of news categories,
horoscopes, sports scores, etc.; Keywords, codes or symbols, which can be
referenced by entering keywords such as zip codes for local weather
forecasts or stock ticker symbols for stock quotes; Demographic/traffic
analysis, which is usually derived from a log file which indicates a
user's name, email address, zip code, and Internet Service Provider
information; Comparison methods, which use data provided by other users
to highlight similarities and differences among users; and Collaborative
processes, which select content or works based on the preferences of
others who are in some way similar to the user.

[0006] Personalization processes in use today, including the use of
demographics and pick-lists, are inadequate for the vast amounts of
health-related information and the relatively narrow interests of many
users. Pick Lists are useful, when the possible selections number fewer
than several (e.g., 4 or 5) dozens. However, health related content can
be usefully categorized among hundreds or thousands of distinct topics.
As a consequence, conventional health-related network sites that employ
Pick Lists for personalization typically provide relatively few
selections that each cover broad areas of information. Such broad
coverage areas render such personalization ineffective for the specific
health-related information desired by many users.

[0007] The present invention provides personalization of access to
health-related content on a computer network based upon a health history
of a user. In one implementation, personal health-related information
about the user is obtained from a user operating a client computer. The
health-related information includes one or more health-related terms that
each corresponds to a health-related concept. The personal health
information may relate to health conditions, which may include medical
diagnoses like diabetes, high blood pressure, pneumonia, or pregnancy, or
any current or past health problems like poor vision, chronic joint pain,
cancer, or alcoholism. The health information could also or alternatively
relate to allergies, tests, vaccinations, surgeries or procedures, etc.
that affect or have affected the health of the user or that are a part of
the user's health history.

[0008] The health related terms provided by the user are correlated with a
health terminology thesaurus that is stored on a computer-readable
medium, such as at a server remote from the user client. Each of the
health-related terms is associated with a single concept unique
identifier that uniquely identifies a corresponding health-related
concept. Each concept unique identifier has associated with it one or
more terms corresponding to a common health-related concept. Some of the
terms are clinical medical terms and others are lay medical terms that
are not clinical medical terms.

[0009] Health-related works or content that is accessible over a computer
network may be identified in a personalized manner based upon the concept
unique identifiers. The health-related content may include, for example,
health news, product and service information, disease information,
medication information, and other health-related content. Each
health-related work has associate with one or more concept unique
identifiers. Personalized identification of the health-related works
entails matching the concept unique identifiers of the terms provided by
the user with the concept unique identifiers of works relating to those
terms. In addition, the Concept Unique Identifier is related to other
Concept Unique Identifiers to give it greater semantic meaning and
context. The relationships of concepts are derived from existing
professional healthcare vocabularies, including Snomed, Medical Subject
Headings, and International Classification of Diseases. These
relationships allow the term "type 2 sugar disease" which equates to the
concept of adult-onset diabetes mellitus, to be related as a narrower
concept to diabetes mellitus, which in turn is a narrower concept than
diabetes, which in turn is a narrower concept to endocrine and glandular
disorders. This then allows an article written simply about "Diabetes" to
find all those who would benefit from this information, including those
who described themselves as having "type 2 sugar disease."

[0010] The present invention provides personalized access to
health-related information that can accommodate the particular interests
of both professional and lay users and the vast amounts of and
conflicting terminology in health-related information. In contrast,
conventional personalization processes are inadequate for the
particularized interests of users in combination with the vast and
complex resources of health-related information.

[0011] Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will be
apparent from the detailed description of the preferred embodiment
thereof, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a computer system that may be used to
implement the present invention.

[0013]FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of a health history personalization
process.

[0014]FIG. 3 is a block diagram of one implementation of a health history
personalization computer system.

[0016]FIG. 1 illustrates an operating environment for an embodiment of
the present invention as a computer system 20 with a computer 22 that
comprises at least one high speed processing unit (CPU) 24 in conjunction
with a memory system 26, an input device 28, and an output device 30.
These elements are interconnected by at least one bus structure 32.

[0017] The illustrated CPU 24 is of familiar design and includes an ALU 34
for performing computations, a collection of registers 36 for temporary
storage of data and instructions, and a control unit 38 for controlling
operation of the system 20. The CPU 24 may be a processor having any of a
variety of architectures including Alpha from Digital, MIPS from MIPS
Technology, NEC, IDT, Siemens, and others, x86 from Intel and others,
including Cyrix, AMD, and Nexgen, and the PowerPC from IBM and Motorola.

[0018] The memory system 26 generally includes high-speed main memory 40
in the form of a medium such as random access memory (RAM) and read only
memory (ROM} semiconductor devices, and secondary storage 42 in the form
of long term storage mediums such as floppy disks, hard disks, tape,
CD-ROM, flash memory, etc. and other devices that store data using
electrical, magnetic, optical or other recording media. The main memory
40 also can include video display memory for displaying images through a
display device. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the memory
26 can comprise a variety of alternative components having a variety of
storage capacities.

[0019] The input and output devices 28 and 30 also are familiar. The input
device 28 can comprise a keyboard, a mouse, a physical transducer (e.g.,
a microphone), etc. The output device 30 can comprise a display, a
printer, a transducer (e.g., a speaker), etc. Some devices, such as a
network interface or a modem, can be used as input and/or output devices.

[0020] As is familiar to those skilled in the art, the computer system 20
further includes an operating system and at least one application
program. The operating system is the set of software which controls the
computer system's operation and the allocation of resources. The
application program is the set of software that performs a task desired
by user, using computer resources made available through the operating
system. Both are resident in the illustrated memory system 26.

[0021] In accordance with the practices of persons skilled in the art of
computer programming, the present invention is described below with
reference to acts and symbolic representations of operations that are
performed by computer system 20, unless indicated otherwise. Such acts
and operations are sometimes referred to as being computer-executed and
may be associated with the operating system or the application program as
appropriate. It will be appreciated that the acts and symbolically
represented operations include the manipulation by the CPU 24 of
electrical signals representing data bits which causes a resulting
transformation or reduction of the electrical signal representation, and
the maintenance of data bits at memory locations in memory system 26 to
thereby reconfigure or otherwise alter the computer system's operation,
as well as other processing of signals. The memory locations where data
bits are maintained are physical locations that have particular
electrical, magnetic, or optical properties corresponding to the data
bits.

[0022]FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of a health history personalization
process 50 for personalizing health-related content that is accessible by
a user at a network-connected computer, the user commonly being a lay
individual without specific medical training. The computer network may be
private or public and may be a local area network or a wide area network.
In one implementation, health history personalization process 50 operates
and access to the health-related content are provided to the user over
the Internet.

[0023] Process block 52 indicates that personal health information is
collected about the user. The personal health information may relate to
health conditions, which may include medical diagnoses like diabetes,
high blood pressure, pneumonia, or pregnancy, or any current or past
health problem like poor vision, chronic joint pain, cancer, or
alcoholism.

[0024] Alternatively, the health information could relate to allergies,
tests, vaccinations, surgeries or procedures. etc. that affect or have
affected the health of the user or that are a part of the user's health
history.

[0025] For purposes of explanation, the following description is made with
reference to the health information relating to health conditions. It
will be appreciated that the description is similarly applicable to other
types of health information, including information relating to allergies,
tests, vaccinations, surgeries or procedures, etc.

[0026] Process block 54 indicates that the personal health information are
correlated with predefined concept unique identifiers (CUIs). Each
concept unique identifier uniquely identifies a predefined health-related
concept (e.g., a health condition). The concept unique identifiers
provide standardized identification of the predefined health-related
concepts independent of traditional variations between lay medical and
clinical medical terminology for health conditions, as described below in
greater detail. In one implementation, the concept unique identifiers are
in the form of alpha-numeric segments (e.g., 8 characters each).
Alternatively, numeric or alphabetic segments could be used.

[0027] The concept unique identifiers are based on core medical concepts,
enabling multiple synonyms and related terms to be mapped to the same
concept unique identifier or code. For example, "hyperpeisis," "elevated
systolic pressure," "high blood pressure," "hypertensive vascular
disease" and "high blood" are all used in consumer and professional
circles to describe the same thing: high blood pressure. Accordingly, all
these terms would be mapped or associated with a single concept unique
identifier.

[0028] Process block 58 indicates that one or more concept unique
identifiers are associated with each of many health-related works or
content (e.g., health news, product and service information, disease
information, medication information, and other health-related content
that are available over the network) that relate to the predefined
health-related concepts corresponding to the concept unique identifiers.
The associations between the health-related content and the concept
unique identifiers are maintained in a database as a data structure on a
computer-readable medium.

[0029] In addition to the association of concept unique identifiers
pertaining to the subject of the health related works, a combination of
concept unique identifiers is associated with the health related works to
identify the appropriate populations of users for whom the health-related
work are most appropriate. Additive concept unique identifiers are used
to identify populations of appropriate users, such as male, age 40-60,
history of prostate cancer, on the medicine Lupron, and on the medicine
Aspirin. Exclusion of concepts from the target population of users is
also performed, such as the above criteria, but excluding users who are
on the medicine Proscar.

[0030] As another example for how the system can utilize a combination of
concept unique identifiers and excluded concept unique identifiers to
define populations of appropriate recipients for health-related works,
the association of subject-based concept unique identifiers to a news
article entitled "Exercise found to reduce the risk for breast cancer"
will result in the concept unique identifiers for breast cancer, breast
cancer prevention, and exercise. This article then is also indexed with a
combination of concept unique identifiers (additive and/or excluded) for
which the article is most appropriate. For example, the above mentioned
article would be "targeted" to women between the ages of 30 and 70 who
are at risk for breast cancer but who have not had a history of breast
cancer.

[0031] Process block 60 indicates that the concept unique identifiers for
the personal health information collected about the user are correlated
with the concept unique identifiers of health-related content available
over the computer network to identify health-related content that is
personalized for the user.

[0032] Process block 62 indicates that access to the personalized
health-related content is provided to the user. It will be appreciated
that the access to the content may be provided to the user in a number of
ways. For example, the personalized health-related content may be
provided as personalized hyperlinks that are selectable by the user or
the content itself may be provided directly to the user. The access to
the personalized health-related content may be provided to the user in
several ways. For example, the access to the content may be "pushed" to
the user without a specific request by the user for the information, but
rather based upon the personal health information provided by the user.
As another example, the access to the information may be provided to the
user in response to a specific request or search by the user.

[0033] Exemplary concept unique identifiers and corresponding predefined
health-related concepts or terms for several health conditions are listed
below in Table 1. The relationship between each concept unique identifier
and the corresponding health-related term or terms forms a data structure
that is stored in a computer-readable medium and includes a concept
unique identifier (e.g., alphanumeric) and one or more associated
health-related terms. The data structure allows uniform identification of
health-related concepts despite a variety of lay medical terms and
clinical medical terms being in use. The listing of Table 1 is not
exhaustive of the health condition medical terms to which the concept
unique identifiers may be applied.

[0034] The concept unique identifiers and corresponding predefined
health-related terms form a health terminology thesaurus that is stored
on a computer-readable medium and provides the concept unique identifiers
based upon the health-related terms. The consumer health terminology
thesaurus incorporates terminology from many health-related vocabularies,
including The Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED) promulgated
by the College of American Pathologists and the International
Classification of Diseases: 9th revision, Clinical Modification,
promulgated by the Health Care Financing Administration. as well as the
many consumer and lay medical terms created by WellMed, Inc. The
thesaurus is an extension of the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS)
Metathesaurus promulgated by the National Library of Medicine.

[0035]FIG. 3 is a block diagram of one implementation of a health history
personalization computer system 100, which includes a user client 102
that communicates over a computer network 104 with a health history
personalization server 106. Server 106 may be implemented as one or more
server computers. In the case of multiple server computers, they may be
local to each other or may be remote from each other and in communication
via a computer network. User client 102 may be implemented as, for
example, an interactive document or page that is accessible by the user
at a client computer with conventional browser software.

[0037] FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic illustration of a health information
terminology wizard user interface 110 that is rendered on a display
screen for the user by user client 102. Health information terminology
wizard user interface 110 assists a user in providing personal health
information to health history personalization computer system 100.

[0038] User interface 110 includes a health information (e.g., health
condition) entry pane 112 in which the user is prompted to enter a
current or past health condition. A graphical control 114 allows the user
to commence a search of health terminology thesaurus 108 for terms that
are related or correspond to the health condition terminology the user
entered into entry pane 112. In one implementation, the commencing of the
search results in the health condition terminology entered by the user
being transmitted over network 104 to health history personalization
server 106 where thesaurus 108 is stored.

[0039] Any health terms that health information personalization software
109 identifies in thesaurus as 108 corresponding or relating to the
information entered by the user are returned for display in a health
terminology (e.g., health conditions) pane 114 of user interface 110. A
prompt instructs the user to select one of the returned health terms that
best corresponds to the user's health condition. Alternatively, the user
may select an instruction to store the health information (e.g., health
condition) as entered in entry pane 112. In one optional implementation,
user interface 106 includes a definitions pane 116 in which text
definitions may be provided for health terms selected by the user from
health terminology pane 114 (e.g., cystitis in the illustration of FIG.
4). Health information personalization software 109 further includes a
health terminology spell checking component that checks the spelling of
terms entered by the user. In the event of apparent misspellings or
unrecognized terms, server 106 returns to health terminology pane 114 one
or more suggested correct spellings. Health history personalization
server 106 correlates a concept unique identifier with the health term
selected by the user as corresponding to the user's health condition,
unless the user selects the instruction to store the health information
(e.g., health condition) as typed in entry pane 112 rather than one of
the returned matches. The concept unique identifier is stored at server
106 with identifying information regarding the user. When submitting a
query in the entry pane 112, users may use a word related to the desired
result. For example, the user may enter "heart" in the health conditions
entry pane 112 to retrieve a list of health conditions having to do with
the heart. Similarly, the user may enter "diabetes" to find all health
conditions related to diabetes.

[0040] Also stored at server 106 are a listing of health-related content
that is available over the network and concept unique identifiers
indicative of the subject matter of the content. For example, server 106
could store a link or a network address for a news article entitled "Gene
Identified As Cause Of Skin Disease" having associated with it the
subject concepts of Xeroderma Pigmentosa (concept C0043345), skin cancer
(concept C0007114), and genetic research (concept C0243064).

[0041] Server 106 correlates the user's personal health information (e.g.,
health conditions) with the corresponding health-related content. Server
106 identifies content having the same concept unique identifiers as
those associated with the user's personal health information. For
example, the news article entitled "Gene Identified As Cause Of Skin
Disease" could be correlated with users who have Xeroderma Pigmentosa
(concept C0043345), and users with skin cancer (concept C0007114). Links
to the news article could be provided to both groups of users either in
response to searches they conduct related to the specified topics, or the
links maybe delivered to the users automatically as a "push" of
potentially relevant information identified at server 106.

[0042] As stated above with reference to FIG. 3, server 106 may be
implemented as one or more server computers. In one implementation,
thesaurus 108 resides on a first one or more server computers,
personalization software 109 resides on a second one or more server
computers, and the profiles of the individual users reside on a third one
or more server computers.

[0043] Having described and illustrated the principles of our invention
with reference to an illustrated embodiment, it will be recognized that
the illustrated embodiment can be modified in arrangement and detail
without departing from such principles. It should be understood that the
programs, processes, or methods described herein are not related or
limited to any particular type of computer apparatus, unless indicated
otherwise. Various types of general purpose or specialized computer
apparatus may be used with or perform operations in accordance with the
teachings described herein. Elements of the illustrated embodiment shown
in software may be implemented in hardware and vice versa.

[0044] In view of the many possible embodiments to which the principles of
our invention may be applied, it should be recognized that the detailed
embodiments are illustrative only and should not be taken as limiting the
scope of our invention. Rather, we claim as our invention all such
embodiments as may come within the scope and spirit of the following
claims and equivalents thereto.